Below The Beltway

As most people who have followed politics since the 1980s know, Bob Dole doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being a nice guy.

He’s got a mean streak in him that showed itself in public, most memorably, when he unloaded on then Vice-President George H.W. Bush during the 1988 Republican Presidential race:

Dole made a more serious bid in 1988. He started out strong by solidly defeating then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in the Iowa caucus—Bush finished third, behind television evangelist Pat Robertson. However, Bush recovered in time to defeat Dole in the New Hampshire Primary. The New Hampshire contest between the two was particularly bitter although they differed little on the issues. After the returns had come in on the night of that primary, Dole appeared to lose his temper in a television interview. Dole was interviewed live in New Hampshire on NBC by Tom Brokaw, who was in the NBC studio in New York.

Well, Dole’s been retired for awhile and has softened his image a little when he became a Viagra pitchman and appeared on Saturday Night Live, but the old mean-spirited Dole came out yesterday and unloaded on Scott McClellan:

Bob Dole yesterday sent a scalding email to Scott McClellan, excoriating the former White House spokesman as a “miserable creature” who greedily betrayed his former patron for a fast buck.

In an extraordinary message obtained and authenticated by Politico, Dole uses his trademark biting wit to portray McClellan as a classic Washington opportunist.

“There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues,” Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. “No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.”

(…)

“In my nearly 36 years of public service I’ve known of a few like you,” Dole writes, recounting his years representing Kansas in the House and Senate. “No doubt you will ‘clean up’ as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, ‘Biting The Hand That Fed Me.’ Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years”

Dole assures McClellan that he won’t read the book — “because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job”

“That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively,” Dole concludes. “You’re a hot ticket now but don’t you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?”

He signs the email simply: “BOB DOLE”

Given the extraordinary caustic tone of the email, I really don’t think the signature line was necessary Bob, we pretty much would recognize that temper anywhere.

And, of course, like everyone else who’s taken this line, Dole doesn’t even bother to address the substance of what McClellan says.

If the Bush Administration and its minions think that this story is going to go away simply by demonizing the person telling it, I think they’ll find they have another thing coming.

Update: McQ agrees with Dole, apparently:

Dole certainly didn’t mince words. And, of course he’s right. His point about speaking out then vs. now is exactly why people like LTG Ricardo Sanchez - who did the same thing - are viewed with contempt.

Dole only comes close to being right if you accept his argument, and the one advanced by Bush Administration hacks on cable news shows for the past three days, that McClellan is questionable because he didn’t speak up when he served under the President.

So what ?

I watched the Today show interview yesterday and Meredith Viera asked McClellan the same question. I took his response to be that the doubts he is writing about now didn’t really enter his mind during the run-up to the Iraq War and that, to the extent there were doubts, he had enough faith in his boss, who he’d known for ten years back in Texas, to trust that he was making the right decision. Now, he’s changed his mind.

What’s so wrong about that ?

Unlike others, I am not going to make a judgment about McClellan or his allegations until I’ve actually read the book, which should be sometime next week. And if you haven’t read the book and are merely relying on what the MSM and the talking heads are telling you he said, then at least be honest enough to admit that.

And, yes, I’m talking about you Senator Dole.

Update #2: Brendan Loy has a humorous take on the resurrection of Mean Bob Dole.